We weren’t entirely alone. Long ships passed in the distance, too far away to see us.
“We have about an hour,” Marina said. “Then we’ll probably lose consciousness.”
“What?” I didn’t want to die. I started breathing faster again, searching around for my parents. For anyone.
“After you fall into cold water, a bunch of things happen. The big thing is, it makes you gasp. You can’t help it. And if you’re underwater, that’s bad. The first minute is where you panic and hyperventilate. You breathe too fast and suck in water and drown.”
We tucked in our chins as a wave pushed us from behind. I remembered panicking. But I saw Marina and it made me think about something else.
“But if you don’t panic,” she continued, “then you have about ten minutes to set up your life raft before you start to lose feeling in your fingers. Our arms are going to stop working properly.”
Marina sounded like a robot. Wasn’t she as scared as I was? I watched her face as she talked, and slid even closer to her on the board. Her calmness made me feel better.
She looked around. “Maybe we have more than an hour since we’re out of the water, and wearing lots of layers.” She glanced back at me. “And you’ll last longer than me with that suit. Also, body fat insulates.”
“I used to be good at gymnastics.” I wanted to explain I wasn’t always like this. When I was on the team, I didn’t have time to play Minecraft. But that was over a year ago. Now that’s all I do.
“Dad must’ve released the life raft,” Marina said, as if she didn’t hear me. “Someone will spot that. He wouldn’t have had time to radio a distress call, it happened so fast.”
“What happened? What did you see?” I asked her. “Did the mom whale get angry and attack?”
I couldn’t imagine a whale larger than the one that had jumped out of the water, but it would have to have been big to sink our big boat.
Marina looked at me then. “What? No, that’s ridiculous. It was a rogue wave. The biggest monster I’ve ever seen. A wall of water hit us. And everyone was on the starboard side looking at the orcas. All the weight on the top deck and on one side . . .” She trailed off, looked like she was about to cry, then shook her head. “He’s okay. He must have gotten in the life raft.”
“My family too. They’re all in the raft too, right?”
“I don’t know. Probably.” Marina looked above us. “Any minute we’ll see the helicopter searching for us.”
Every fourth or fifth wave was bigger than the others and broke behind our backs, then crashed on top of us. The board shot forward, then drifted, then shot forward again. We wobbled and splashed, trying to stay on top out of the water. Neither of us spoke, but I thought I could hear Marina sniffling.
My legs draped into the water and I kicked to keep us straight. I was glad now of the suit Mom had made me wear, though I could feel the cold water around my ankles. I rubbed my hand over my eyes. The salt water stung and caked my skin. It was all I could taste.
Marina held her right hand to her chest and clutched the board with her left.
“Does it hurt?” I asked.
Her expression slipped for a moment and she bit her lip. But she tossed her hair from her eyes and stared ahead. “When we make it to shore, we’re going to need to build a fire right away. And a shelter.”
She described how we were definitely going to make it to shore. And then how we’d make a shelter. How we would use it to get warm and how we’d need to build a signal fire for the rescuers to find us.
I nodded, but my thoughts raced along with my heart. Where were Mom and Dad? Did Stacey find them? Did they get in the raft? Were they looking for me right now? How would they find us out here? There was so much water. Nothing to see but curling, frothing waves in every direction. Splashing, crashing, endless.
The waves were like hills taller than me now. I threw my arm over Marina so she wouldn’t be washed over. My fingers were cold and stiff. How long could we last out here?
“Twenty-five-knot wind,” Marina mumbled. “Drifting about five knots with the current. Ebb tide.” She was starting to sound weaker.
Was she going unconscious? I nudged her with my shoulder. “Keep talking to me. How come you know all this stuff?”
“Just Dad and me. Mom left when I was six. Dad was a commercial fisherman, but we could make a better living in the tourist industry. I take care of him. I learn about the whales. Going to be interpreter onboard tour boat. Teach people about marine life.”
As I listened to her, my problems at home didn’t seem so bad. At least my mom was around.
I lifted my head, got a hard wave in the face, wiped my eyes. I couldn’t see the ships anymore. It looked like a cloud was tumbling over the mountains.
The wind howled behind us, screaming like a wild animal. It tried to tear us from the board. Waves smacked my back. But I started to become aware of another noise. It sounded like wet breathing.
It was right behind us.
I twisted but didn’t see anything. What was that? I kicked to get away. The breathing returned, closer. I turned to look over one shoulder and then the other. And that’s when I saw it.
A dark head with big eyes staring right at me.